Great Movies: The Wizard of Oz and Wicked

Gregory Maguire, author of the novel “Wicked,” wrote, “I realized that nobody had ever written about the second most evil character in our collective American subconscious [the first being Hitler]: the Wicked Witch of the West.” His novel stayed on the New York Times Best Sellers list for 26 weeks and inspired the Broadway musical “Wicked,” which has sold out audiences since 2006. The play “Wicked” birthed the 2024 smash hit movie musical, “Wicked.” The book, the play, and the movie are all prequels to “The Wizard of Oz,” the most seen American movie in the world, sponsored by the State Department as part of their Great American Movies international series.

Come learn about the background information, watch the films and then discuss “The Wizard of Oz” (3-hour session) and the following week, “Wicked” (3.5-hour session with an intermission). 

Lynda Tisdell, a former high school English teacher, saw “Peter Pan” at the age of six and has never forgotten it. Passionate about movies, she has studied them, discussed them endlessly, and dreamed about them. She has previously taught many Great Movie courses, recently “The Power of Film,” “Great Movie Comedies,” “Children and Their Families,” “Monsters and Villains,” “The Way We Used to Be,” and many others.